1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and method for using thumbnail images. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for acquiring Out-Of-Focus (OOF) information about an image and representing the OOF information in a thumbnail image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, as more files are stored in a system, more time and more effort are taken in order to search for an intended file. To reduce the inconvenience, a plurality of thumbnail images for still images can be displayed at the same time in one screen page. The use of thumbnails of images enables a user to detect information about stored images more easily and faster in the case of a mobile terminal having a relatively small capacity and a relatively slow processing speed, or a program that stores and manages a plurality of image files. In this context, a function for representing image files as thumbnails has become a necessity.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional thumbnail image generator. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional thumbnail image generator includes an EXchangeable Imagefile Format (EXIF) parser 110, a thumbnail selector 120, an image decoder 130, and a down scaler 140.
The EXIF parser 110 extracts a thumbnail image from EXIF information about a received image.
The thumbnail selector 120 selects one of the thumbnail image extracted from the EXIF information or a thumbnail image created by image decoding.
The image decoder 130 decompresses a compressed image, such as a Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG) image.
The down scaler 140 generates the thumbnail image by scaling down the size of the decoded image.
When creating a thumbnail image in the above thumbnail image generator, upon receipt of a image bit stream compressed a format such as JPEG, it is determined whether there is EXIF information about the bit stream. In the presence of the EXIF information, a thumbnail image is generated from an image included the EXIF information in the EXIF parser 110. In the absence of the EXIF information, the received image is decoded in the image decoder 130 and a thumbnail image is generated by scaling down the size of the decoded image in the down scaler 140.
In a portable terminal, a user can easily view all images on page through their display via thumbnails. Hence, the thumbnails should reflect the characteristic of their original images. Conventional thumbnails, which provide a rough view of the original images, are lacking in that they do not provide any indication of important characteristics of the images, i.e. focus information. This shortcoming is attributed to an effect resulting from conventional thumbnail creation. That is, when an original image is scaled down, its subtlety is gone and accordingly, its focus information is also missing.
Moreover, an out-of-focus image is subject to user amendment or deletion. In the conventional technology, focus information about an image is not known when the image is in a thumbnail state and thus the image needs to be displayed to a full size on a screen to reveal the focus information.
Therefore, the user inconveniently invokes an original image to amend, without amending or deleting the image in a thumbnail state. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a technique for reflecting focus information about an original image in its thumbnail so that the user can detect the focus information about the image and thus select and amend the image in the thumbnail state.